Sermon Tone Analysis

trusting the faithful father in the face of fiery trials

Big Idea - Peter combats the natural tendency to react with shock and outrage at trials among the suffering community of faith by explaining that trials in this life should be expected (4:12), and, when unjust (4:1615-16), they allow us to participate in Christ’s sufferings (4:13) and give us a foretaste of future glory through the Spirit (4:14).

Thus we can rejoice even in the midst of them (4:13).

Further, when trials as a Christian make us want to run from the faith to escape them, we should remember that the eternal suffering of the unbeliever makes that of the believer in this life pale in comparison (4:17-18).

Thus, when we face even the darkest of trials, we can trust that the sovereign God who created all that exists is still in control, and will work all things for our good and his glory.

We can always trust our trials to him (4:19).

You can trust the Faithful Father in the Face of Tough Trials.

(Bridgeway Youth, 10-Jun-2018)

FCF1 - The tendency to be shocked and outraged when we face unjust suffering or trials.

Big Idea - Peter combats the natural tendency to react with shock and outrage at trials among the suffering community of faith by explaining that trials in this life should be expected (4:12).

When we suffer unjustly (4:1615-16), we participate in Christ’s sufferings (4:13) and are blessed with a foretaste of future glory through the Spirit (4:14).

Thus we can rejoice even in the midst of suffering (4:13).

Further, when trials as a Christian make us want to run from the faith to escape them, we should remember that the eternal suffering of the unbeliever makes that of the believer in this life pale in comparison (4:17-18).

Thus, when we face even the darkest of trials, we can trust that the sovereign God who created all that exists is still in control, and will work all things for our good and his glory.

We can always trust our trials to him (4:19).

You Can Trust the Faithful Father in the Face of Fiery Trials.

Grace - An explanation that in the gospel, Christ suffered, and called us to suffer, and that our sufferings bless us with the glory of the future.

FCF1 - The tendency to be shocked and outraged when we face unjust suffering or trials.

FCF2 - The temptation to alleviate our sufferings as Christians by abandoning the faith.

Grace - A reminder that unbelievers will face an eternal suffering, and so abandoning present suffering as a Christian to join them is not a win.

Grace - An explanation that in the gospel, Christ suffered, and called us to suffer, and that our sufferings bless us with the glory of the future.

FCF3 - The difficulty in believing that God is actually in control when we face unjust trials.

FCF2 - The temptation to alleviate our sufferings as Christians by abandoning the faith.

Grace - A reminder that unbelievers will face an eternal suffering, and so abandoning present suffering as a Christian to join them is not a win.

Grace - An assertion of the faithfulness of the Sovereign Creator.

He not only is in control - He is faithful to his character and promises.

Introduction - The Greatest Lie

FCF3 - The difficulty in believing that God is both in control and good when we face unjust trials.

1. Don’t let unjust trials take you by surprise, but rejoice in them as a foretaste of future glory (4:12-16).

Grace - An assertion of the faithfulness of the Sovereign Creator.

He is in control, and he is faithful to his character and promises.

Introduction - The Greatest Lie

A. Don’t let trials take you by surprise (4:12).

- A word about persecution

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

Our natural tendency is to think that life should be without struggles.

“When we experience something that is really hard to bear and that appears pointless (in contrast with the harsh sting of an antiseptic cleansing a wound), we immediately ask, Why is this happening to me?

This question is a protest against the fact that we suffer while others do not and presupposes that suffering ought not to happen to anyone.

Peter ‘answers’ this question in this section of the letter.

He gives a number of reasons for having a different attitude, one of joy rather than outrage.”

(Marshall, I. H.). Jesus suffered extensively, and made it clear that those who follow him would face the same (; ; ; ; ; ).

Trials for unbelievers are not strange - they are promised.

Further, they should be seen as part of the “testing” and “purifying” process that the sovereign God always brings his people through (; ; ; and ).

We are tempted to think that when we go through suffering, it somehow means that God is absent.

But in fact, it is the greatest evidence that he is lovingly present.

1. Don’t let unjust trials take you by surprise, but rejoice in them as a foretaste of future glory (4:12-16).

B.

Rather rejoice during Trials because you get to share in Christ’s sufferings and taste his future glory through his Spirit (4:13-14)

Don’t let trials take you by surprise (4:12).

“But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you, on their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.”

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

Peter picks up Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount here.